I really try to block out hype and homer type reporting. I prefer the truth and seeing the big picture as opposed to some brainwashing that anyone receives while watching some of these Sports Networks.

But, SEC ‘expert’ Paul Finebaum says that Nick Saban is hands down the better coach than Urban Meyer.

I am not going to quote the guy and I didn’t read much past the first few sentences as I rolled my eyes and hit the little x at the upper right corner of my computer screen. These guys just never stop.

Let’s look at the big picture using facts instead of conference preferences and homer thoughts. Let’s do the math instead of doing the kissing of buttocks.

Who really is the better coach from a realistic and rational football fan that enjoys watching every team play?

Who are these two obviously brilliant coaches and why are they considered the best?

Without going into too long of a post, let’s take a really, really brief look at these guys and mostly their head coaching jobs.

Nick Saban is 63 years old, according to Wikipedia and I have no reason to doubt their birth dates. That seems legit. They also claim he is 5’6″ which I believe is a stretch. No big deal, we have no control over how tall we are and big things really can come in little packages. I just find it odd that they have his height listed when the tape measure is not mentioned for nearly most everyone else.

Saban got his first head coaching job at Toledo in 1990 and did really well with a 9-2 record, and they didn’t even have Arkansas on their schedule.

After a season at Toledo, he was hired by the Cleveland Browns as their Defensive Coordinator.

Before the 1995 season, the Michigan State Spartans hired him to take over their ailing program. They had been placed on probation due to recruiting violations under their previous head coach and the Spartans were desperate for change.

Change is what they got with Nick Saban.

Saban was just at Michigan State for 5 seasons, but he turned that program around putting them basically in the position they are in today. His first year there, the Spartans finished 6-5-1 and his last season in East Lansing produced a 9-2 season and a Citrus Bowl berth. But, Saban had no part in the actual bowl game as he was already gone South to LSU and the SEC.

The LSU Tigers were struggling when he arrived and he turned that program around quickly. Louisiana is a hot bed for football recruiting with more NFL players per capita than any other state. Saban went 34-24-1 at Michigan State and then he went 48-16 at LSU with a very controversial national title in 2003. LSU is also one of my favorite schools to watch on any particular weekend, so don’t give me grief here. USC was just the better team in 2003 and was named national champs in other Polls. The BCS was a mess. Still, Saban and his LSU Tigers did what they had to do which was beat Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl.

Saban left LSU for the Miami Dolphins of the NFL, after the 2004 season, where he went 15 – 17 in two years.

The Alabama Crimson Tide hired Nick Saban away from the Dolphins with an out of this world contract to get done in Tuscaloosa what he had done in East Lansing and in Baton Rouge.

It worked beautifully.

Nick Saban has gone 90-17 so far at Alabama with 3 national championships and none of those anything less than legitimate.

 

Nick Saban has a 181-59-1 record, so far, in college football.

 

Saban is from West Virginia and played college football for one of my all time favorite coaches, Don James, at Kent State. I don’t know how much he played at his size, but he was on the team.

 

Urban Meyer also played college football in the state of Ohio, but at Cincinnati instead. Meyer is much bigger, but sadly was more of a scrub as well just like the majority of us folks are. That’s not a slam on Meyer, just trying to sound as fair as possible since I don’t believe Saban played since he’s 5’5″ and 5’5″ guys only play if they run 4.2 40 yard dashes and I don’t believe he did.

 

Meyer grew up a Buckeye fan and after coaching elsewhere he finally got his dream job at Ohio State in 2012.

Meyer is a little younger than Saban at 51 years of age.

 

Meyer got his big break at Bowling Green in the 2001 season and he went 17-6 in two seasons there. His success got him noticed by the Utah Utes and he was hired for the 2003 season and went 10-2 his first year there. His second season could have resulted in a national championship, in 2004, when his Utes went 12-0 on the season.

That incredible season got him noticed by the Florida Gators who were loaded with talent, but lacked coaching.

In 6 seasons in Gainesville with the Florida Gators, Urban Meyer went 65-15 and won 2 national championships. Strangely and mysteriously, Urban Meyer stepped down at Florida citing family and health as reasons.

He took a year off from coaching and worked as an analyst at ESPN in the 2011 season.

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That nonsense didn’t last long and Urban Meyer returned to coaching with Ohio State before the 2012 season.

His first season, Meyer directed the Buckeyes to a 12-0 record. They were ineligible for a bowl game, but finished undefeated.

The following season saw the Buckeyes win their first 12 games before losing to Michigan State in the Big 10 championship game and then a good Clemson squad in the Orange Bowl. The Buckeyes finished 12-2 in 2013.

Last season, the Buckeyes went 14-1 and won the first ever playoff for the national championship, which included a win over Nick Saban and Alabama.

 

So far at Ohio State Meyer is 42-3. Overall, Urban Meyer is 146-26.

 

Compare the fact that each coach has 2 wins against the other coach and how do you pick which one of these guys is the best coach in college football?

Saban has won 181 college games and lost 59. Meyer has won 146 and lost 26.

SEC fans, Paul Finebaum will counter with Ohio State doesn’t play any body. But, they played Alabama just last season.

Ohio State fans could counter with Meyer went 65-15 in the SEC and won titles there, too.

 

Both men can clearly coach lights out. Both of these guys are obviously outstanding recruiters. Both of these guys have won national titles and they are the only 2 men to win national titles at 2 different schools.

 

I am not an SEC fan, an Alabama fan, or an Ohio State fan. I do happen, however, to like and respect the SEC, Alabama and Ohio State.

As a neutral fan, it’s really too close of a call to pick between these two coaching giants.

 

A guy that has a radio show saying that Nick Saban is a better coach than Urban Meyer just because his show is based on SEC football and it is headquartered in Tuscaloosa, Alabama really has no merit.

 

Another thing to consider when asking who is the better coach is recruiting. All of the so called recruiting experts have named Alabama the national recruiting champions in each of the last several seasons.

If that is the case, then that is vote for Urban Meyer as the better coach between the two. Meyer’s

team just won the national championship with players that the experts consider inferior to those at Alabama, yet Ohio State was the better team in 2014. That’s equal to better players or better coaching, or maybe both.

That’s also a crock, in my opinion, because I think that Ohio State and Florida State have recruited as good or better than Alabama. Both of those schools have won national championships since the last time that Saban and his better recruiting classes.

As a fan of college football who loves the national picture more than a guy like Paul Finebaum, I have a different opinion than this guy with an agenda.

I think this race is too close to call. However, if I am an Athletic Director and I can only choose a coach between Meyer and Saban and there are no other factors involved. If I can take either of these two men and they would come to may school willingly and money was not an issue, nor anything else.

I am picking Urban Meyer over Nick Saban.

No, don’t stop reading now.

Any body in their right mind with all things being equal would be happy with either coach.

The only reason I am choosing Urban Meyer is because he is 51 years of age and Saban is 63. Meyer could coach my team a lot longer, if willing.

Anybody like Paul Finebaum that is going around saying that Saban is the better coach than Meyer is out of his mind, and off of his rocker.

The bottom line is that both Nick Saban and Urban Meyer are outstanding at what they do and both deserve the attention. Most rational people would consider this a toss up and go about their business.